Sakkarai Pongal | Aviyal

As a kid, I loved festivals and celebrations because they meant great food.

Now, I love festivals and celebrations because…well, because they mean great food.

Let’s admit it: most of the fun in any event really lies in the food, doesn’t it? Celebrations around the world center around food, and we Indians are no different. Every festival in India has dishes uniquely associated with it, and on festival days, I remember, the women of our family would spend hours in the kitchen turning out lip-smacking goodies.

They would make luscious Shrikhand -Puri for Gudi Padva (the Maharashtrian new year) and whisper-soft Puran Polis for Holi, a raucous festival where everyone douses everyone else with colored water and powders. Diwali, the festival of lights and the mother of all Hindu celebrations, was a smorgasboard of so many sweet and savory treats, it makes my head spin and my stomach growl just to think of them. Ganesh Chaturthi, the birthday of Ganesha, the beloved elephant-headed god of Hindus, was about five days of feasting on the most delicious food imaginable.

After marrying a Tamilian, I inherited more festivals and therefore more occasions for great food. Of these, Pongal is just about my favorite.

Pongal is a day for the people of Tamil Nadu to elebrate prosperity, and it is a day to cook two of the most amazing dishes I’ve ever tasted: Venn Pongal and Sakkarai Pongal.

Both dishes start out with a similar base of rice and mung lentils, but one is mixed with jaggery, an unrefined sugar, to make the sweet or Sakkarai Pongal, while the other is flavored with a few simple spices like pepper, ginger and cumin seeds to make the savory version, or Venn Pongal.

Today, to go with my Venn Pongal, I made some Aviyal. a South Indian stew made with coconut milk and vegetables, and flavored with coconut oil.

I had already posted a recipe for Venn Pongal in the past, so I am not going to repeat it here, other than to give you the link. But here are my recipes for Sakkarai Pongal and Aviyal.

One quick note: both Pongals use ghee liberally, and ghee, or clarified butter, as you know, is a no-no in my kitchen. For the Sakkarai Pongal I used canola oil and almond milk and stirred in some vegan butter (Earth Balance) at the end. It was creamy and delicious.

Sakkarai Pongal is great with some pachchai karpooram, or edible camphor, which gives it a unique flavor. I’ve never been able to find any at my Indian grocery store, so I went without, but add a pinch if you can find it.

Boil the rice and mung dal together, preferably in a pressure cooker, until really soft. I added about 3 cups of water to the pressure cooker, which gave me the right consistency.

Add almond milk to the rice-mung mixture and set it on a low flame.

Add the jaggery and stir well.

Cook on a low flame until the raw jaggery smell has dissipated. This took about half an hour for me. The pongal should not be dry, but creamy and slightly fluid. If it gets too dry, add some more almond milk.

oh my, all the dishes look mouthwatering! i just had my pongal for dinner 5 minutes back and checking my reader.. and look what you have posted. chakkarai pongal looks soooo good vaishali. lovely color. i am gonna make it tomorrow.

Wow! This celebration of food sounds like the equivalent of the American Thanksgiving, but with more variations! Wonderful to learn about your culture and how there are differences within the culture too.

Happy Pongal to both of you, Vaish! I too used to look forward to food all the time during festivals:)! I was thinking of making aviyal this way:) Chakra pongal and aviyal both look delish. I made with vanaspati and without any milk.